Rodney Weber
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Earth & Environmental Science
Fine particles in the air, known as PM2.5, harm health. In cold Arctic cities like Fairbanks, Alaska, winter pollution can be severe and its chemistry differs from warmer places.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
Engineering
- Topics
atmospheric chemistry
air quality
fine particulate matter
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2029
What they work on
- Quantify how the switch to lower-sulfur fuel oil changes wintertime PM2.5 sulfate, hydroxymethanesulfonate and related sulfur species in Fairbanks, Alaska, using real-time monitoring instruments.
- Characterize particle liquid water content and acidity (pH) under Arctic winter conditions to understand how cold temperatures control the watery chemistry that forms particle sulfur.
- Measure gaseous ammonia, nitric acid and other trace gases at high time resolution to explain the processes setting aerosol composition and acidity.
More about the research
Fairbanks recently switched to lower-sulfur heating oil to clean its air. That switch offers a rare natural experiment to see directly how cutting sulfur emissions changes the particles people breathe.
Why it matters
Measuring how lower-sulfur heating oil changes wintertime fine-particle pollution can show whether this mandated strategy works. That evidence could help Fairbanks and other Arctic communities, and guide national strategies to reduce people's exposure to harmful PM2.5.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kerri Pratt
University of Michigan, MI·Chemistry
Measure bromine- and chlorine-containing gases, aerosols and cloud residual particles above and downwind of Arctic sea-ice leads, stretches of open water within ice cover, using the Wyoming King Air and Purdue ALAR research aircraft.
Jesse Kroll
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA·Chemistry
Measure how ozone, formaldehyde and secondary organic aerosol form, and in what amounts, when isoprene, monoterpenes and aromatics are oxidized in chambers across the full range of atmospheric organic peroxy radical (RO2) conditions.
John Mak
Stony Brook University, NY·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure the specific volatile organic compounds over greater New York, including those from volatile chemical products, using instruments aboard the NSF C-130 aircraft.
The school
Georgia Institute of Technology: 50 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 572 research doctorates a year.
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